Licorice Wands and WetStart Fireworks
by Toothy Halcyon
Summary: A look at Emil and Xiang's relationship at Hogwarts over the years, and how being in the rival houses of Slytherin and Gryffindor affects that. HongIce in a Hogwarts setting.
1. First Year

Sometimes, if they were lucky, they could catch each other's eye from across the Great Hall. On those days when it seemed like even the universe was rooting for them, they could have one lucky moment where their eyes locked onto each other through the crowds of bustling students and teachers and they were allowed to know definitively, for even so much as a second, that they were there for each other.

And they could make it happen more often than sometimes with a bit of strategic planning, so that was what they usually went with, instead of depending on the rather unreliable universe to make anything happen. What they had to do was sit on opposite sides of their respective tables, which were already on opposite sides of the Great Hall, within each other's line of sight, make sure that no one older or taller than themselves sat across from them, and make sure to sit on the ends of their tables so there would be a smaller chance of anyone at the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff tables blocking their view. There was also the matter of getting to their meals early enough to help make all of this happen, which was hardly the easiest thing for two fifteen year olds who both enjoyed sleeping in and were constantly bogged down with prep for their OWLs. Still, it was all worth it in the end, because it was even more difficult for Xiang the Gryffindor and Emil the Slytherin to see each other in public in almost any other way.

At least, not without having their families throw a royal fit.

Both Xiang and Emil had siblings at Hogwarts. Xiang had Yao, a seventh year in Hufflepuff, and Emil had Lukas, a seventh year in Slytherin. Both of their siblings were very proud, stubborn people who were very loyal to their houses and remained true to their colors. As such, they hated each other with a passion. A smart, slick Slytherin like Lukas couldn't help but look down on a simple Hufflepuff like Yao, and a humble, helpful Hufflepuff like Yao couldn't help but scorn a haughty Slytherin like Lukas.

The fact that Xiang was in a different house from his brother didn't help his case in the slightest. In fact, it just made him worse, in Lukas's eyes. Gryffindors and Slytherins had always been the worst of enemies and that message had been pounded into Emil and Xiang by their families and housemates for years.

"You should never trust a Slytherin," Arthur, Xiang's fellow Gryffindor, had told him once. "They're only loyal to themselves and they'll stab you in the back at the first chance to get ahead."

"You should never befriend a Gryffindor," Lukas had told Emil at least once a year since he was nine and Lukas had begun at Hogwarts. "They're egotistical maniacs who think the world revolves around them. They'll never have you in their thoughts for more than a second."

All of them had tried their best to instill in Emil and Xiang a hatred for the opposing house and its members that would last their entire lives, and they thought they'd done a fairly good job of it so far. To Yao, the thought of his little brother and that silver haired Slytherin snake ever being able to get along was laughable. Lukas wouldn't even take a second to consider the possibility that his little brother and that troublemaking Gryffindor moron could ever be friends.

To know that the two had actually been _going out_ since third year might cause a full scale riot.

That was the truth of the matter, though. Despite the rivalry their houses had shared for centuries, Emil and Xiang were boyfriends, secretly seeing each other behind their brothers' backs for two years already. It was the little things that kept them going. They snuck glances at each other at breakfast. They sat beside each other when their houses had classes together. They even stayed at the castle during Hogsmeade visits sometimes because it was easier to meet in private then.

They also went for more elaborate schemes sometimes, like sneaking out of their dorms in the middle of the night, in order to meet up and make out. If anyone caught them, they just said they were going out for a midnight duel. Not all of the professors would punish them for that, after all, and it was a believable enough excuse, especially when someone found the pair of them alone in the trophy room, out of breath with their hair and clothes messed up. Even if they did get a detention for their trouble, it was still better than the alternative of others finding out about them. They had learned from five years' experience what kind of trouble crossing the invisible lines between houses caused.

All of this began before Emil and Xiang were even sorted and pulled behind those lines, on their first ride to school on the Hogwarts Express. That was when they met. The ride had been a different experience for the two of them at first. Eleven year-old Xiang had been a nosy, adventures little thing and, being on the mystical Hogwarts Express he'd heard so much about for the first time, he'd been very eager to go off on his own and see what trouble he could into. He considered slipping away from his older brother his proudest achievement from that day.

Emil, on the other hand, had been accidentally separated from his older brother and was very anxious about it. He'd always had Lukas and Mathias, their family friend and another Slytherin at Hogwarts, there to look out for him, and had been expecting his brother to hold his hand through the whole sorting process. Losing track of his older brother had been very upsetting.

They found each other after an hour of wandering alone, in front of a conveniently empty compartment in the middle of the train. Around that time, Xiang was starting to get really annoyed with all the upperclassmen ignoring him and pushing him around and Emil was on the verge of tears from his anxiety over being lost. It wasn't the best first meeting when they bumped into each other. Xiang, being in a bad mood, began to pick on watery eyed Emil, glad for someone to look down on.

"Hey, what're you doing crying?" was the first thing Xiang said to him. "Don't you know that only big babies cry?"

Emil, barely able to defend himself, just said, "I'm not crying," before asking Xiang if he'd seen his brother, a sort of scary looking boy with blond hair and a gold cross pin.

Now, this was something Xiang had yet to admit to Emil, even in their fifth year, but he actually had seen Lukas before meeting Emil on the train. He'd been hanging around the back of the train with Mathias, looking for his little brother in all the wrong places. However, Xiang hadn't wanted to lose the first other first year he'd met so soon, so he hadn't mentioned him. He'd just gone on talking the only way he knew. "Yeah, you're definitely a giant baby," Xiang went on. "Only giant babies cry for their big brothers. If you were a grown up, you'd be happy on your own, like me, but you're not."

Upset enough already, Emil couldn't stand up to any more of even his weak insults, and started tearing up with soft, hiccupy sobs on the spot. It really wasn't a good day for him. He hadn't been allowed to bring his dear pet puffin to school just because he wasn't a stupid owl, he'd lost his brother because Lukas couldn't even wait until the feast to go look for Mathias, and the first person he'd ever met at Hogwarts was bullying him. Already, he wanted to go home.

At that point, Xiang had a couple more biting remarks like, "What's up with your hair? It is enchanted or something?" saved up to further torment the boy, but he held them back. He really hadn't meant to make Emil cry; just look upon Xiang and he crazy good insulting skills with reverence. Yao was always insulting his friends, after all, and they got along well enough. When he saw Emil cry though, he rethought the idea that his was the best way to make friends and took responsibility for his actions, like a proper gentleman. He'd learned all about that from Yao's friend Arthur. That was when Xiang grabbed Emil's hand, pulled him into that free compartment, and introduced himself formally. He even bought Emil a licorice wand as an apology when the trolley went by. Somehow, he'd managed to guess Emil's favorite candy on the first try.

Emil and Xiang sat together in that compartment for hours, getting to know each other. What they found out, they really liked. Emil was from a wizarding family and Xiang was a half-blood but they both had a great love of little muggle gadgets, especially video games. They both had a bothersome brother two years older than them, who was always telling them what to do. They were both secretly hoping to get into Ravenclaw, despite the advice of their brothers. Emil liked them best because they had a cool bird for their symbol and Xiang liked the idea of becoming smart enough to invent a firework you could disguise as anything.

Altogether, they had a small pile of things in common and, over the years, it would turn out that that pile was smaller and smaller in comparison to their differences, but the threshold for friendship between two eleven year olds in a strange, new place is much lower than it is for most others. It didn't take either one even fifteen minutes to forget about their troublesome beginning and decide that the other boy was their new best friend.

Near the end of the train ride, Lukas and Yao finally managed to find their little brothers, arriving in front of their compartment, rather inconveniently, at the same time. Upon seeing whose brother their own brother had befriended, they both dragged their respective sibling away, muttering insults about dark, creepy Slytherins and empty headed Hufflepuffs as they did.

Of course, none of that stopped Xiang and Emil from going back to each other for the boat ride to school, shepherded along by a big, hairy Turkish man. They stayed together, in fact, up until the point when they were sorted into opposing houses, and even that wasn't enough to keep them apart for long. Although they avoided each other for the first few weeks of school on the advice of their brothers and housemates, Emil and Xiang soon began hanging out again. Despite all warnings of the evilness and the stupidity of the other houses, they didn't see each other like that at all. Emil was just a boy who liked licorice wands and was good at writing compositions – which Xiang had a tendency to neglect until the last minute – and Xiang was just a boy who liked setting off fireworks in odd places and learned new spells easily – which Emil could have trouble with at times. They didn't see any reason why they couldn't be friends.

So, their first year at Hogwarts was spent with them doing first year things like learning to brew shrinking potions and turn needles invisible, being friends with each other, and being dragged apart time and time again by their older brothers, who never once gave their approval of the relationship. Despite how many times they were dragged apart, Emil and Xiang always found their way back to each other. They'd found a best friend in the other boy and overall, it was a good year for both of them.

Less so for their brothers.

And at the end of the year, when Lukas listened in on Emil promising Xiang that he'd send him a letter by puffin as often as he could, and Xiang making the same promise in return, he decided that he was going to have to handle this situation over the summer a little differently if he was going to put a stop to it. After all, Slytherins and Gryffindors just weren't meant to mix.


	2. Second Year

Xiang went into his second year at Hogwarts with bigger plans and higher expectations. He felt certain that this year, he was going to make something happen. Something big. Setting off those firecrackers at the professors' private Christmas feast had been cool and all but now that he was no longer a lowly first year, he knew he could do more. He could definitely make top prankster by the end of the year if he worked for it, and make his brother good and ashamed.

It was also better to be starting school again with a best friend already in tow. Xiang was going to have Emil right from the start, and going into that year, he was eager to hear from him again. Despite promises, they hadn't kept in touch as much as they'd said they would. The letters from Emil had come steadily for the first few weeks but after that, Xiang hadn't heard anything from him, which was weird. Emil was usually good about keeping up with assignments. He wasn't going to bug him about it though. Writing letters was a pain in the butt and Xiang was almost glad for the excuse to not have to write this. It meant more for them to catch up on in person, anyway.

Except, Xiang didn't really get to see him in person for a while. He didn't see him on the train. Emil didn't approach him at the sorting feast. He didn't even wave hello when they passed each other on the way to their dorms, even though Xiang was _certain_ he noticed him, which meant that Emil had ignored him.

Which did not sit well with Xiang one bit.

After the feast, he felt seriously annoyed and cheated. Emil was supposed to be _his_ best friend. What did he think he was doing, ignoring him half the summer and blowing him off to hang with the other Slytherins? Emil hardly even knew any of his housemates. It was like he was trying to annoy Xiang on purpose.

The young Gryffindor decided this warranted some payback. Maybe setting all the bacon at the Slytherin table on fire. Xiang had spent a good portion of his summer researching incendiary spells and now would be the perfect chance to try them out. It was a great opportunity to show off for Emil too, and if Lukas got hit in the face with a fat, flaming slab of bacon in the crossfire, then that was just a bonus.

That plan, however, went awry, as many plans concocted by young wizards do. Xiang failed spectacularly in his attempt to grab Emil's attention. Not only did he set his own robes on fire instead of the Slytherins' bacon, but Emil didn't even look at him as the prefects were shooting water spells at him. In fact, he was distinctly looking away. That was the first hint that something was wrong.

Xiang spent the next several weeks on stunts like that; doing anything he could to attract Emil's attention. He made tiny, paper puffins and tried to charm them to fly over to Emil.

They mostly caught on fire.

He tried to enchant Emil's knives in Potions so they would always cut his ingredients to the right lengths.

They mostly caught on fire.

He even tried asking Emil straight forward what was wrong once, but that only resulted in Emil getting frustrated with all of Xiang's attention-seeking behavior, calling Xiang a pushy jerk, brushing him aside, and causing him to bump an elbow into a candle which – surprise, surprise – caught his sleeve on fire.

None of his attempts were really successful, but Xiang was beginning to think he could have a great career in dragon taming, what with how much he was getting used to these burns.

No matter how hard Xiang tried, he could hardly get his Slytherin friend to so much as look at him. Even when they were sitting right beside each other in class, Emil would never talk to him about anything but classwork, and this behavior bothered Xiang to no end. He didn't have a clue what it was about and he never seemed any closer to finding out. Not to mention that as time went on, Xiang began to feel less annoyed and frustrated with the whole situation and more just upset. More and more, he just wanted his best friend back. He didn't want Yong Soo, his fellow second year Gryffindor who didn't know how to shut up for two seconds. He didn't want Raivis, the quivering Ravenclaw who could never stop stammering long enough to say anything useful. He wanted Emil, who knew about Mario Kart and digital music and would write the last few inches of his composition for him if it was due in ten minutes and was his best friend, Slytherin or not.

Xiang wanted to hang out with him again, and he'd do whatever it took to make that happen. So, he made one more plan; this time, involving something he knew he could do right.

One day in October, after Charms class, Xiang cornered Emil in the hallway and spoke to him, although he did so with some difficulty. As usual, when confronted by the Gryffindor, Emil began to look uncomfortable and tried to dodge away. Xiang easily blocked him, though. He was a quick fellow with good reflexes and he stepped in Emil's way every time he tried to get away. Seeing Emil get frustrated over his efforts was one of Xiang's happiest moments of the year so far.

"What do you _want_, Xiang?" Emil demanded, glaring at the smirking Gryffindor. "I have to get to Transfiguration, and you've got Herbology."

As much as Xiang would've liked to gloat about how Emil still knew his schedule, even though they hadn't spoken all year, he guessed that he wouldn't have much time to talk to him. Emil would find a way around him eventually. And Herbology really was a long way away. He made sure to get right to the point. "Alright, listen here, Emil," Xiang said. "For some reason, you've been ignoring me lately, and for some other reason, you haven't told me what that reason is, and I don't really expect you to. I know you Slytherins love your secrets and all."

Emil's expression softened to one of uncertainty as he stared at him. This conversation was quite different from the other ones Xiang had tried to force on him this year. He listened to him, even though he head and his brother's advice told him otherwise. "So, what do you want?" he asked, a little less harshly.

_Ha_, Xiang thought victoriously, _gotcha_. "I only wanted to tell you to skip your next Potions class," he told him, giving Emil a solid pat on the shoulder. "It'll do you good."

"What? Skip Potions?" Emil echoed, surprised. "I've never skipped class before, and Beilschmidt will have my head if I do."

Rolling his eyes, Xiang cursed Emil's inability to think outside the box. One advantage of being a Gryffindor was that you learned that it was okay to break the rules for a good cause, which this definitely was. "Tell him you got a stomach ache or something. Beilschmidt'll believe anything you Slytherins say. Just, get out of class. If you trust me, you'll get out of class."

Eyeing him warily, Emil demanded, "And why should I trust you on this?"

"Because," Xiang explained in simplest terms, "I'm still your best friend, whether you like it or not."

The two boys stood together for a moment, Emil with his pile of spell books clenched to his chest and Xiang with his wand – ash, phoenix feather, eight and a half inches – tucked behind his ear. They ignored the rest of the young witches and wizards passing them by in a hurry and the fact that every moment they wasted on staring at each other brought them closer to being late and landing in detention. They stared at each other to see what they could see. Xiang saw his best friend, the silver haired boy who loved licorice and helped him with his compositions and wouldn't know how to be cool to save his life. And Emil, he saw –

"So, you gonna skip Potions?" Xiang asked before Emil could reach any conclusion about what he saw and what he believed.

His concentration broken, Emil blinked. Then, he spun around and hurried away to his Transfiguration class.

Knowing he'd done everything he could, Xiang did the same, heading to Herbology. All that was left to do now was wait.

Emil trusted him. To Xiang's immense delight, when he turned up for Potions class that Thursday, he found that his silver haired friend had not. No explanation was given. Professor Beilschmidt asked after him, but none of the other Slytherins were able to give him an answer about his whereabouts. Being one of the Head of Slytherin's precious students, Xiang just knew that Beilschmidt would chalk it up to sickness, while any Gryffindor who behaved in such a manner would get detention for a month, but he didn't care. Instead, he was happy. Maybe happier than he'd been all year because of the simple fact that _Emil still trusted him_. It was good to know that his best friend still looked at him in the same way.

It was also a good thing for Emil that he _did_ trust Xiang, because near the end of the class, when the students had their rat draughts nearly prepared, he tossed a few wet-start fireworks into Yong Soo's cauldron and quickly ducked under his desk. This sheltered him from the blast, but everyone who wasn't in on his plan – in other words, _everyone_, including the professor – ended up covered in a potion meant to help small rodents regrow lost limbs. In pet shops, it was very useful to shopkeepers, to help keep their stock in shape. In a second year potion class, it just made everyone start sprouting rat tails all over their bodies.

Even if it had been for the sake of his friendship with Emil, Xiang couldn't help but feel proud of himself. The chaos after the blast was incredible. Gryffindors and Slytherins alike running about with ugly, naked rat tails pointing every which way out of their bodies, screaming and hollering in a panic. Better yet, Liam ran into the case containing all the rats they were going to test their potions on, knocking them to the ground and setting them all free. They not only had students with rat tails running around, but dozens of rats without tails as well. It took Professor Beilschmidt and Professor Donia, the Transfigruation teacher, over four hours to properly remove all the tails and for several days afterwards, all the victims of the blast would carry red marks of wherever their tails had been.

It was absolutely beautiful.

It also landed Xiang in detention for two weeks straight. Emil as well. Xiang, for obvious reasons, and Emil, because after having spent four hours covered in wriggling rat tails, Beilschmidt was not in a good mood and decided it was just too convenient that he'd been missing from class on the day of that awful incident. When given his punishment, Emil tried to do what Xiang had told him and said that he'd been sick but Beilschmidt didn't buy it for a second. Both boys were sentenced to two weeks of scrubbing the worktables, the floors, and all the equipment in the Potions classroom by hand. Everything was going according to plan.

Naturally, Emil was less than pleased with the situation. He'd been stupid enough to trust Xiang, and all he'd done was get him into trouble. Up until their first detention, Emil didn't just continue to ignore him; he was cold. He glared at the Asian boy whenever their eyes met by accident. He let out a disdainful huff every time they walked by each other and made sure to move away if Xiang sat within three seats of him. He was determined to get through these two weeks of detention without saying a word to Xiang and then never have anything to do with him again. Emil even showed up for his detention early so he could start work without having to pay him any attention.

When Xiang showed up at their first detention in the dungeons, he found everything set up for him to get to work. On one table, there was a number of buckets of warm, soapy water and clean towels for scrubbing the floor, as well as some scrub brushes for the cauldrons. At first, Xiang thought that Beilschmidt had made an uncharacteristically kind gesture and prepared all their supplies for them, which would be cool, because he absolutely hated cleaning the muggle way. It was just about the single most boring activity in the history of existence. And apparently, there were muggles who actually made a career out of it. Xiang didn't understand how they didn't die of _boredom_ every day they went to work.

Anyway, he realized after a second that it wasn't the harsh Potions professor who had made the kind gesture. Xiang noticed that Emil was already there in the dungeon, on his hands and knees, scrubbing furiously at the floor. He didn't look up when Xiang came in, or acknowledge him in any way. He just went on trying to scrub some squashed toad eyes off the old, brick floor. From the way he kept moving the offending eyes around instead of really cleaning them off, and glaring at them for not doing what he wanted them to do, Xiang could tell that Emil was even worse at this than he was. He was from a pure blooded family, after all. He'd probably never had to lift a finger for cleaning.

At least he'd have lots of time to practice. Fourteen two hour detentions would surely help put some callouses on his hands. And Xiang would have all that time alone with Emil, to try and get him to talk to him.

Now, if he wanted to get Emil to talk to him, Xiang could have done something sensible. He could've gotten to work and scrubbed the floor beside him, and talked to him until he finally talked back, but that seemed like a very long and boring process. Instead, Xiang simply grabbed one of those buckets from off the table and dumped its contents over Emil's head. That achieved roughly the same effect.

It was a lot more fun to watch as well.

Dripping wet with a head covered in suds and a fire burning in his eyes, Emil sprang to his feet. He let out an annoyed growl when he saw Xiang holding the bucket, and when that growl only made Xiang chuckle, he even gave the other boy a shove. "Xiang, what the hell was that for?" he demanded, clenching his fists.

Xiang shrugged, still finding this mostly amusing. "For fun," he answered.

"_You_," Emil growled, practically boiling over with his frustration, "you _jerk_! Why can't you just leave me alone? Just take the hint! I don't want to talk to you anymore!"

He pretended to consider this for a moment before dismissively saying, "Nah, I don't think so. Because, like, a year ago, you might've gotten mad if I threw a bucket of water on you, but you would've thrown one right back at me, because that'd be fun. And now you're just mad, which is weird. And you don't want to be friends with me anymore, which is weirder. I mean," Xiang snorted and smirked cockily, "it's me. Why the hell wouldn't you want to be friends with _me_?"

"Because I don't," Emil snapped. "I just want to get these detentions over with, whether you help me or not."

"Hey, I'd help you if you'd tell me what your deal with me is," Xiang offered. "Then we'd be friends again, and I wouldn't mind helping a friend out."

Fed up with his games, Emil turned away and attempted to simply go back to work, but Xiang didn't accept that any more than he'd accepted Emil ignoring him the rest of the year. He pulled on Emil's hand and Emil pulled away. They said, "Let go of me," and, "If you'll stop being a brat," and, "You're the one being a brat!" And then a raspberry was blown in Emil's face. All of which led to a little muggle tussle between them, which ended with another overturned bucket of filthy water, Emil lying on the ground with his clothes slowly soaking up that filth, and Xiang sitting on his back, feeling rather pleased with himself and thinking, _Maybe not all muggle activities are totally boring after all._

"Okay Emil, here's how it's gonna go," Xiang explained as Emil struggled in vain to escape from beneath him. "We can either keep this arrangement for two hours, get nothing done, and have Professor Beilschmidt even angrier at us at the end of the day, or you could tell me what the matter is and get on with our lives." He gave his friend a little condescending pat on the head and finished, "Your choice."

For a moment, Emil continued to resist. He tried to sit up. He tried to push Xiang off of him. He tried to remember the curses he'd read about in Lukas's Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook and when he realized he'd left his wand in his robes, lying on the worktable so they wouldn't get dirty, he settled for plain old muggle cursing. Of course, none of this was effective in getting Xiang off, so when his moment of resistance was over, he took another moment for banging his head against the grubby floor in resignation. It was frustrating enough, being put in this situation, but worse than that was that Xiang was right. All Emil wanted to do was throw a bucket of water back in his face.

He gave in.

"It was something my brother told me this summer," Emil admitted at last, "something about Slytherins and Gryffindors."

Xiang blinked curiously and looked down at Emil, who had calmed down and was wearing an unreadable expression. He was pretty sure that was the most straight forward Emil had been with him all year, and for that, Xiang released him and allowed him to continue his story sitting cross legged on the floor beside him. Both were fairly grubby at that point, so they didn't care anymore if they squished a few more toad eyes beneath them.

Emil went on speaking with his head bowed, as if he would rather not be admitting this. "Lukas, over the summer, told me why Slytherins and Gryffindors shouldn't be friends," he began. "He told me about how you guys really think of us. You think that we're all bad guys, just because a lot of dark wizards came from Slytherin and you think we're jerks, just because we're smart and ambitious and we look after our own. You might like me now, but Lukas told me that when you get older and become more like the other Gryffindors, you'll start to resent me too, and I won't want a friend like that."

Or, at least, Lukas had told him he wouldn't want Xiang for a friend. He'd been very serious about all of this, telling Emil to avoid Xiang and Gryffindors like a mama bunny would tell her baby bunnies to avoid big cats. Emil, personally, hadn't felt the same way about Xiang but Lukas's words had frightened him, as they were meant to. The idea of his best friend turning on him someday, just for being who he was, was a scary thing and Emil hadn't wanted to face it. That was why he'd been avoiding Xiang. He'd been looking out for himself. He was afraid of Xiang hurting his feelings. Although, in reality, Emil had been just as upset as Xiang about them being separated.

Emil explained this to Xiang as well as he could and finished with, "So, you see, we just can't be friends anymore. We'll just end up too different and-"

"Alright, I'm gonna have to stop you right there," said Xiang, who had listened to his speech with an indifferent look on his face, as he slapped a hand over Emil's mouth. "You're starting to sound too stupid for me to keep believing that you're actually a Slytherin." Emil tried to object but Xiang kept his hand pressed there to keep him quiet. "No, you listen to me now, Emil," he instructed him. "I'm gonna ask you some questions and you're gonna answer yes or no. So, first off, do you still like me and want to be my friend?"

He frowned slightly. When Xiang lifted his hand, he slowly answered, "Yes, of course I-"

"That's good," Xiang said, quickly replacing it, causing Emil to look slightly indignant, "because I like you and still wanna be your friend too. So, secondly, have you, as a Slytherin, ever been mad at me for being a thoughtless, reckless Gryffindor?"

Emil had certainly been mad at him before. It was just in Xiang's nature to do pointless things that got others mad at him. That was part of who he was. Hell, he'd been mad at him two seconds ago for dumping a bucket of water on him and sitting on his back. However, he'd never been mad for very long, and Xiang being a Gryffindor had never been part of that. He said, "No." Xiang smiled at that, just a little.

"Also good, because I've never resented you for being a smug, sneaky Slytherin either," he said. "In fact, I think it'd be best if you kept being smart like you are because I could really use some help with this composition of mine." He shot an oh-so-charming, toothy grin Emil's way and, seeing how phony it was, Emil couldn't help but give a small, sincere one in return.

"History of Magic, Werewolf Outbreak of 1409?" he asked knowingly.

Patting him on the shoulder, Xiang nodded and said, "You know me so well." He felt a warm, little bubble swelling up inside of him. It felt good, falling back in step with each other. "Anyway," Xiang went on, "what I'm saying is, can you see, like, any reason we can't be friends?"

"Well," Emil said uncertainly, "well, Lukas said-"

"No," Xiang snapped, narrowing his eyes, "not what Lukas said. Your brother hates fun and is literally a killer of joy. I wanna know what _you_ have to say, Emil."

After a moment's consideration, Emil came to the conclusion that no, he didn't have any reason of his own, and that was more than good enough for Xiang.

"Okay, so, we're friends again," he nodded. "Cool."

For some reason, Emil had a harder time simply accepting that. Staring at his apparent friend in dumb surprise, he stammered, "B-but what about-" only for Xiang to shush him.

"But Slytherin-"

"Sh."

"-and Gryffindor-"

"_Sh_."

"-and Lukas!"

"Sh! Sh!" Xiang shushed him as loud as he could, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "What do you not understand about sh? When I say "sh" I mean "sh" and that means "shut your mouth because we're friends again". End of story." Honestly, he didn't get what was so hard about this. They wanted to be friends, and they were. Why did Emil have to keep looking at him like he didn't know what to do? It was starting to make him feel bad. He quickly tagged something on to help Emil out. "And if it makes you feel any better, we can just, like, keep it a secret. If your brother doesn't see us together, he won't bug you about it anymore."

"Really?" Emil asked, brightening up a bit.

"Yeah, sure," Xiang insisted without much thought. "It could be fun, you know? Like spies, sneaking around under everyone's noses." Xiang had heard of wizarding spies before; people who specialized in undetectable disguises, camouflage spells, and information gathering. In industries where creating new spells and magical items before others was the goal, having as much information as possible could be very useful. It was one of Xiang's top career choices, along with going into research in order to breed cat-sized pandas that came in a variety of colors. Oh, and dragon tamer.

He was a boy with ambition, after all.

Over Xiang's suggestion of a secret friendship, Emil was finally put at ease and gladly accepted it. Little did they know that this would define their relationship for the next four years. That, however, was a matter for another time. With things resolved for the moment, the two boys finally got to work on what they were meant to be doing: cleaning the dungeons. They didn't get much done, partly because they were both very bad at muggle cleaning and partly because they kept wasting their time dumping soap and water on each other, rather than on the floor. Of course, Emil had to dump one on Xiang, in revenge for the original bucket, and a second one was soon to follow, because Emil felt the second bucket, the one with the dirty water, which had spilt over him had been Xiang's fault as well. Xiang, who disagreed on this point, felt the need to retaliate. This cycle of revenge continued on for a while, because they could never agree on which bucket satisfied it.

They had a good time, despite the fact that they ended up walking back to their dormitories sopping wet, the most cleaning they got done was mopping up the water they'd spilt in the first place, and afterwards, Beilschmidt was still angry enough to assign them another detention to make up for that night. They were just glad to be back with each other. After all, a twelve year old's best friend was worth more to them than all the gold in Gringott's. Because they were together, the rest of their detentions passed much more enjoyably than they'd ever thought detention could.

There was just one little hitch on the third day. Emil was having a particularly hard time scrubbing up some potion spilt by a fifth year which was meant to act as an adhesive. Even though the potion had been a failure, and would not have been able to cement an elephant to a ceiling, as it should have, it was still pretty well stuck on the floor. Feeling sorry for his friend who looked so determined to rid the world of that spill but whose continued scrubbing was only succeeding in tiring him out, Xiang offered to take care of it for him with magic.

"We might as well," he explained, when Emil reminded him of the nature of their detention. "If we can't get it off, Beilschmidt'll just use magic to get it up anyway."

And that wasn't so bad. Emil could see the logic in that, and ever since their argument, he'd decided to put more trust in Xiang's judgment. The hitch came when Xiang helped him up off the floor and added, "Besides, it'd be a waste if your pretty, little hands got all banged up because of this."

The word "pretty" fell between them like an anvil, landing with a loud clang in the silence that fell between them immediately afterwards. Xiang hadn't meant to say it. Emil hadn't wanted to hear. They were just twelve year olds, after all, and they didn't even want to hear the word "pretty" in regards to their best friend. They had no idea how it'd managed to make its way into the conversation, just that it'd suddenly made them acutely aware of how awkward it felt for Xiang to hold Emil's hand when he helped him up. Xiang quickly let go and they left the moment behind. Emil just made sure to slosh a bit of water on him later, to lighten the tension.

Also, the spill caught on fire when Xiang tried to magic it away.

The rest of Emil and Xiang's second year at Hogwarts was a trial run for their secret friendship. While they continued on with their classes, slowly becoming more adept at wizardry, they also began to learn the ins and outs of maintaining a relationship like that. That was the year when they began to really explore the castle and find the best hallways and little nooks and crannies where two small boys could hide away together and help each other with their homework. That year, they learned to appreciate those little glances from across the Great Hall and that fighting a duel was always a great excuse when they were caught together.

As far as they knew, their brothers and housemates never caught wind of their friendship and so, not a single lecture on the evilness of Slytherins or the stupidity of Gryffindors was heard that year. Emil and Xiang carried their friendship on in peace, except in those times when words like "pretty" and "cute", and other phrases like that entered their minds in regards to the other. To their discomfort, those times came more and more often as the year carried on.

But those times were just a few more matters to be resolved in their third year. For the moment, everything was simply accidental fires and buckets of soapy water to put them out.


	3. Third Year: Hogsmeade

In their third year at Hogwarts, Xiang and Emil began dating. It just took them a while to figure that out.

"You remember the plan, right?" Emil asked, double checking with Xiang yet again.

"Of course I remember the plan," Xiang confirmed rather testily. "I made up the plan. Stop asking if I remember it." Seriously, his memory wasn't that bad. It was more that he was selectively forgetful of things that weren't important to him, such as the Goblin Rebellion of 1612, but this wasn't one of those things.

"You made up half the plan," Emil corrected him. The only reason he was asking was because he was worried that Xiang would forget the other half. "Could you just go over it again? For my sake?"

The two young men, a month and a half into their third year at Hogwarts, were sitting together on the cold, stone floor of some long forgotten corridor on the sixth floor. It'd become a regular meeting place for them over the past year. There were almost no classes on the sixth floor, so students mostly only passed through to get to Astronomy and Divination, and by the time they were close to reaching those classes, they were usually too tired from the stairs to take notice of anything else. Emil and Xiang were safe there.

They'd become quite familiar with those little spots on the Hogwarts grounds where two people could hide away without being seen. There were the sixth floor hallways. There were the unused dungeons that had been abandoned for teaching purposes because a ghost named General Winter made them too cold. There was the cottage of the groundskeeper, Sadiq Adnan, who seemed to have a personal vendetta against a certain Hufflepuff student but was rather fond of Emil. They'd also managed to find a few magically hidden locations, such as the hidden room on the second floor. Its entrance was blocked by a portrait of little man in a big hat. The trick to getting in was scaring the little man out of his portrait by making a loud noise. Afterwards, the portrait swung open on its own. Xiang and his experimental glue-bomb fireworks had been instrumental in helping them find that out, and also conveniently getting Emil and himself stuck together for several hours with a valid excuse.

While those little spots were good for keeping them hidden, there were a few drawbacks. One was that most of them were rather inconvenient to get to. They were too high or too low or far removed from any area of the grounds where they should reasonably be. Another reason was that they generally weren't very nice places. There was nothing very appealing about some far-flung hallway or a smelly, freezing dungeon. Plus, another Slytherin who apparently enjoyed visiting General Winter, Ivan Braginski, had found them there once and found them out before they could make any excuses. Cheerfully, he'd promised not to tell anybody about their friendship, but only on the condition that they pay him back someday. That hadn't sat well with either of them.

Emil at least thought Sadiq's place was nice. It was small and cozy, there was always some interesting food around, and the older man told them great stories about his homeland and the different customs of Turkish wizards. Xiang, on the other hand, was less fond of Sadiq's hut. Or, rather, he didn't like Sadiq. Or maybe he was just jealous of him. Whenever they went to the groundskeeper's cottage, Emil ended up only paying _half_ of his attention to Xiang, at most. Which was stupid. _Xiang_ was Emil's best friend, not some smelly, hairy old man. They went of their way to hang out together, not with other people.

There was also the fact that no matter how well they hid, there was still always the chance that Yao or Lukas might find them. A week into the new school year, Yao had come to Sadiq's cottage, looking for some extra cat food, and walked in on the two boys having tea with him. Seeing them together, behaving so amicably, Yao had become enraged and began yelling in Chinese so quickly that even Xiang – who, admittedly, was not a great study of the language – couldn't keep up with him. Sadiq had covered for them, thankfully, telling Yao he'd found the boys fighting and was trying to teach them a lesson about getting along, but it was still a close call.

All of this was exactly why the upcoming trip to Hogsmeade was so important.

Seeing Emil's concern over the matter, Xiang played along for his sake. "We're both going to tell our big brothers that we don't want to go to Hogsmeade and that we'd rather stay in the castle and spend the day with them," Xiang recited. "That'll keep them from going to the village." All of that would be easy enough. Lukas had been to Hogsmeade often enough that he wouldn't mind missing one visit if it was to spend time with his little brother, who would appear far too anxious about going to Hogsmeade. Yao, as well, would practically jump at the chance to miss the visit if it meant spending time with his little brother, who would appear very eager to take some lessons about traditional Chinese wizardry. "Once they're out of the way, we meet in the village and spend the day together," he finished confidently. "Everyone'll be too distracted to notice us."

"And when we get back," Emil added quickly, "when Lukas and Yao ask where we've been, we just tell them we didn't want them hanging over us the whole visit. Remember to tell them that, Xiang."

"Merlin's beard," Xiang groaned, rolling his eyes. "I'll remember."

"I'm just making sure," Emil grumbled.

"_Emil_," Xiang snapped irritably.

"Well, you might forget," Emil told him. "You're a forgetful person. You still always forget your History of Magic compositions until the last minute, and I always have to remind you."

At that, Xiang smiled a little. "Emil," he began in a playful tone, "do you ever think I let myself forget my compositions until the last minute because I know you'll remind me?"

Emil didn't quite know what to say to that. He also didn't quite know how to feel about the way Xiang looked at him at that moment, because it was a look that was different from the way they usually looked at each other when they were just being friends, joking around. It was a softer look, somehow. It was…well, Emil didn't really know what it was, just that he'd caught Xiang giving him that look several times over the past year. Because of the way he seemed completely unaware of it, Emil couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever given Xiang that same look as well.

He settled for telling Xiang one last time not to forget the plan and then rushing off to his Ancient Runes class, which was actually in an hour and a half.

For once, for possibly the first time in their awkward teenaged wizarding existences, everything went according to plan. It was as if someone had slipped them a dose of luck potion in their morning cornflakes. Emil and Xiang told Lukas and Yao their little lies, and _they believed them_. The two older brothers stayed behind in the dorms while the boys snuck out with the rest of their houses. It went amazingly smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that Emil began to worry something bad would happen to them soon, just because that's how things happened for them.

But again, nothing did.

Because the houses left in different groups, Emil and Xiang were separated at first. They'd both heard of the Three Broomsticks Inn so that was where they agreed to meet. They agreed to get there as soon as possible so they could have as much time together as they could.

That part of the plan did go a little off, but it was only in a good way. Hogsmeade was a completely wizarding village, the likes of which Emil and Xiang had never seen before. It was all too easy for them to get distracted from their goal for a bit.

Upon arriving in Hogsmeade, Xiang was almost immediately drawn in by a collection of shiny objects making loud bangs down the street. Without a second thought, he changed his course and ended up in front of a stall selling reflective, metallic orbs of various sizes called Gizbangs. Gizbangs were big, shiny distractions that could be remote controlled with a spell to roll wherever their master directed them. They basically existed to distract people. If a shiny rolling ball wasn't enough to get their attention, then one that made obnoxiously loud bangs – activated with a second spell – surely would be. Just set one of these to follow a person and you could drive them away quick as a whip.

Xiang could only imagine the sort of mischief he could get up to with those. He could sneak around anyone's back if he had one of these to distract people from their posts. He could have them annoy Yao and Arthur just for the hell of it. Given all the time in the world, Xiang would've bought one right then and spent the whole day trying it out, just to see how angry he could get people. But he didn't have all the time. He had to get to Emil. In the end, it only pained Xiang a little to tear himself away from the Gizbangs, because he knew he was going to see his best friend instead.

He even made sure to pick up a feathery, little puffball that was charmed to fly around for Emil on his way to meet him. It looked a bit like a puffin. He figured Emil would like that.

Emil encountered a similar problem on his way to meet Xiang. He was drawn into a fancy pet shop where he found birds; birds of all shapes and sizes. Birds charmed and bred for all sorts of appearances. There were warbling, pink chickadees, golden ravens that strutted about like kings, and tapdancing neon green flamingos. Most importantly, there were also puffins – plain, black and white puffins who, according to the shop's caretaker, came from the same breeder as his own Mr. Puffin. Emil, who still sorely missed his pet and was working on a way to smuggle him into the castle, would've gladly spent the whole day in the smelly shop, looking after the birds and feeding them. However, he couldn't. He was going to meet Xiang instead.

It didn't hurt quite so much to leave the puffins with that in mind. The only other stop Emil made on his way to the Three Broomsticks was at a Quidditch supplies store, where he bought Xiang a practice Snitch. He knew Xiang had been trying to get onto Gryffindor's team since their first year, and thought something for a little extra practice might be helpful.

When they met, they exchanged gifts with an awkward, "I got you this," and a bashful, "I thought you might like this." They examined the puff and the Snitch for a moment, and then, simultaneously, Emil and Xiang looked up at each other and smiled. They were more openly glad than they had been in a while, not really because they'd gotten something nice, but because they'd gotten something nice for their best friend. The pair then went on to spend a wonderful day at Hogsmeade, doing everything they had time for.

They went to Honeydukes and bought enough of their favorite candies to make them sick. Emil's bag of licorice was considerably heavier than Xiang's bag of cracklegum.

They went to the Shrieking Shack, where they played chicken to see who could get closer. Xiang won by almost getting close enough to touch the shack's front door, but he heard an ominous wail from within that sent them both scampering away.

They went to Zonko's Joke shop, for about five minutes. Emil had to drag Xiang out after that to prevent a complete sensory overload induced meltdown. The prank potential was simply too great for the Gryffindors to handle.

"Did you see them? Did you see them, Emil?" Xiang demanded, his eyes unusually wide from excitement. "They had charmed joybuzzers that shoot off rainbow sparks! And stuffed toys that turn you into animals for five minutes! Do you know what that means?"

"Yeah, you turning Beilschmidt into something unnatural and somehow getting us both detention for a month," Emil grumbled, "again!" He was pulling Xiang along behind him, trying to get his friend away from the joke shop as quickly as possible. They were holding hands again. Neither one had noted this as anything awkward or significant.

"No, get this," Xiang said, rushing to match Emil's pace and falling in step beside him. He explained in a rather manic tone, "We could like, get a cat for Yao and get a dog for Lukas and then put them in a pen and watch the sparks fly! They'd be going at each other like, you know, cats and dogs!" He grinned at Emil and raised his thick eyebrows expectantly, making the Slytherin laugh as if he'd just told a much funnier joke.

"Xiang, that's cruel," he scolded him, still chuckling a bit.

Xiang shrugged unapologetically. "Not any crueler than keeping their little brothers apart for three years," he said.

Now, that, Emil couldn't really disagree with. Lukas and Yao really were Grade A jerks in that respect.

After their visit to Zonko's, it was beginning to grow dark. It wouldn't be long before the shopkeepers started herding the students out of their stores and back towards the castle. Emil and Xiang decided to make the Three Broomsticks their last stop as well, and get something to warm them up before heading home. The inn was fairly crowded, filled with other students with the same idea, but, after ordering two Butterbeers, the pair still managed to squeeze through to the back, where there was a rickety little table with two chairs just for them. The boys only let go of each other's hands once they were seated.

The pair waited in silence at first. The normally quiet boys had already spoken to each other quite a lot that day, so they couldn't think of anything else to say right away. They just pulled off their gloves, twiddled their thumbs, and glanced around the inn, taking in a bit of the scenery. Then, when they realized they couldn't really see anything over the heads of anyone taller than them – which was basically everyone else there except for the odd elf or goblin – they looked back to each other.

Emil spoke first.

"Xiang," he said, having to speak up to be heard in the crowded inn, "I had a really great time today."

"Yeah," Xiang nodded. "Hogsmeade sure is something, right? All that fancy merchandise at the shops, and the food here, and all the people," his eyes widened at the memory as he added, "and Zonko's, it's all way cool. I don't see why any wizard or witch would ever want to live in a muggle town, and not in a place like this."

"You only think that because you already live in a muggle town," Emil pointed out. "If you lived with an all-wizard family, you'd probably think muggle things were interesting too."

"You mean, like you, fancy, little wizard boy?" Xiang asked teasingly. When Emil blushed slightly in embarrassment, he went on, "Okay, I can see how muggle stuff might seem interesting to you, living in your magical manor all your life, but it's not. It's really not. It's all like, boring and logical." He snorted, as if "logic" was such a terrible, dreary concept. "Stuff's way better in the magical world. Way more explosions here."

"First of all, I've told you before, my family doesn't live in a manor," Emil insisted. "We've got a big place in the country, but it's not a manor." He really preferred for Xiang not to think of him as such a high class wizard. It was just another thing that seemed to be driving them apart. Plus, it gave Xiang another thing to tease him about, which was the last thing he needed. "And secondly, I wouldn't mind spending some time around "boring and logical." It's new to me, like some magic things are new to you."

At first, Xiang found this all rather laughable. Just because boring things were new didn't mean they were any less boring. His Slytherin fancy-boy obviously didn't know anything about the real world. When he thought longer about this however, he realized that this presented an interesting opportunity. "So, what you're saying is, you wouldn't mind checking out a muggle house sometime?" he asked hintingly. Emil shrugged, in the kind of shrugging that said no, he wouldn't mind that at all. "You should come over to my house then!" Xiang exclaimed, brightening up with some of the energy he'd lost over the day. He sat up straight and looked right into Emil's eyes, although he seemed to be looking off into the distance instead.

Emil frowned. "Your house?" he echoed uncertainly.

"Yeah, over the summer," Xiang continued on, already caught up in his own thoughts. "If you think looking at muggle stuff is cool, then we can have a great time together. We – we can hang out and play video games for hours, 'cause I can show you a lot newer stuff than those outdated 8-bit games you've seen, and I can show you my favorite shows on the TV too. And I could take you to an ice cream parlor so you could see the machines that the ice cream comes out of. And, uh…" Unsurprisingly, the 13 year-old wizard's thoughts only stretched as far as TV and food when considering what to do over the summer. After all, that was how he usually occupied himself during his vacation. By the time school started, the sun had usually become an unfamiliar object to him.

It wasn't his ideas that Emil wanted to object to. Honestly, any amount of his summer spent not only away from Lukas, who was always so pushy about making him study and finishing his homework, but with Xiang in a partly muggle household where he'd get to play video games and watch TV to his heart's content sounded like the best thing in the world. However, he couldn't help but think that this dream was not meant to be. "But, Xiang," he objected slowly, hardly having the heart to burst his friend's bubble, "wouldn't that mean our brothers and families finding out about us?"

"Wouldn't wha – oh." Xiang visibly deflated as he was reminded of this. The light in his eyes – which had been very similar to the spark that had entered them when he'd entered Zonko's – quickly left, and he went back to slumping over in his chair. "Oh," he muttered again, "yeah. Well, that sucks Quaffle balls."

"I know," Emil agreed quietly, and he joined Xiang in his slumping. "Today was really great, though," he added, trying to cheer the both of them up. "At least we got to get away from everyone for once." The Gryffindor nodded at that, but said nothing more.

At that moment, they were feeling more upset over their situation than ever. Of course, their day together had been great, and they should've been celebrating their good time, but all they were thinking about was how in less than an hour, they'd be back at their separate tables for the Halloween Feast, and back in their separate dormitories, and back to being separated by Hogwarts house lines. They were both getting really sick of it all.

Fortunately, at that moment, an angel appeared to save the last moments of their little holiday. A beautiful blond woman with a black headband and a smile bright enough to make a werewolf sing pushed her way through the thick crowd effortlessly. She was carrying the two Butterbeers they'd ordered, as well as a small, heart shaped apple tart with two forks. She set them all down before the two boys with a cheerful, "Here you go!"

"Excuse me," Emil said, pointing out the tart, "but we didn't order this."

Xiang poked Emil in the side to silence him. "Hey, don't ruin this," Xiang hissed his ear. "It's free food. Let it go." Who argued against free food?

The woman said they could keep it, nevertheless. "It's on the house, boys," she told them sweetly. "I thought you two looked a little cold coming in, and you could do with something to eat. I'm guessing this is your first visit to Hogsmeade, right?" They nodded. "Well, I hope you two had a good time today," she said, "and you come back to the Three Broomsticks the next time you visit too."

"We will," Emil told her. "Thank you very much." He certainly would be back if this nice lady would be the one serving them in the future, although he would probably be more wary of her if he knew she was actually Emma Donia, the younger sister of their harsh transfiguration teacher. Either way, he gave Xiang a nudge with his elbow to remind him to say thank you as well.

Emma said, "You're welcome," and then spun around, feeling even more light-hearted than before. It was always nice, seeing the wide eyed little third years out on their first visits to Hogsmeade, but it was even better seeing them in their cute, third year romances. She knew a good couple when she saw one. Of course, they were only 13 years old, so chances were they wouldn't last long, but it still did her heart good to see their puppy love.

Meanwhile, Emil and Xiang were on their own again, left to ponder the tart she'd left them.

"Why is it heart shaped?" Emil asked, unwilling to see what should have been a fairly obvious clue.

"I don't know. Maybe just a Three Broomsticks specialty," Xiang shrugged. "But why'd she only bring us one?" he added, ignoring another obvious hint.

"Well, it was a favor for her to bring any at all," Emil said, "and at least she brought us two forks."

"So," Xiang concluded slowly, "I guess, she expects us to…"

"Share?" Emil finished for him.

"Yeah, probably. And, you know, doesn't that seem sort of like a…"

"Couple thing?"

"Um, yeah."

"Yeah…"

There wasn't much left to say about the matter. By that point, it was fairly clear what the waitress's intention with the tart had been, or at least it would be, if they weren't in such deep "We're just friends," third year denial. However, that's how it was. They were stubbornly stuck at the stage "secret friends to the end" and these friends had just been served some free food.

So, instead of making any more awkward conversation, they did what any reasonable 13 year old boys would do and wolfed down the apple tart, even having a small battle with their forks for the last delicious bite. That sort of relationship was good enough for them.

At least, until the end of third year.


End file.
